For many years, central dictation systems have been widely used in businesses throughout the industrialized world. Such dictation systems typically include dictate stations and transcribe stations connected to one or more centrally located recording machines via dedicated wiring at the physical location of a business. Users of the dictate stations located throughout the business can dictate messages for recording by the recording machine, and transcriptionists using transcribe stations positioned in other locations can transcribe the recorded dictation. Thus, a central dictation system permits the physical separation of users of dictate stations from transcriptionists using transcribe stations, while maintaining a central location for the storage and retrieval of dictated messages.
One example of a central dictation system includes a recorder using an endless loop of magnetic tape as the recording medium. For the endless tape recorder, the user dictates a message onto the endless tape loop while, at the same time, a transcriptionist can transcribe a previously recorded message that is stored on the endless tape loop. Another type of recorder used in a central dictation system is a central cassette changer device that records dictated messages onto individual recording media, such as magnetic tape cassettes. In contrast to the endless tape recorder, the central cassette changer device uses a fresh cassette for recording dictation and provides the transcriptionist a recorded dictated message stored on a cassette. Accordingly, dictation and transcription cannot be performed concurrently on the same tape cassette for the central dictation system using a central cassette changer device.
A transcriptionist generally uses a dedicated transcribe station located at the transcriptionist's work location to control various functions of the remote central recorder via the dedicated cabling of the central dictation system. The typical transcribe station controls the speed, volume, and tone of the audio playback of a recorded message by the connected recorder. For more modern central dictation systems, the transcribe station often includes a numeric or alphanumeric display to supply information useful to the transcriptionist. Such transcribe station displays commonly display a number identifying the work to be transcribed, the date and time the work was dictated, the originator's name or identification number, the work type or record number, or the time remaining in a current piece of work. The recorder sends the display information to the transcribe station via the dedicated cabling of the central dictation system. The display information provides the transcriptionist with an indication of the type of document format or form to be used during transcription of a dictation segment and generally assists the transcriptionist's scheduling of works to be transcribed. For selected reports or forms, the transcriptionist also may incorporate certain portions of the displayed information within the transcribed document.
Many businesses today use small general purpose digital computers, such as an IBM personal computer (PC) or an IBM compatible computer, to support word processing applications. Accordingly, the transcription of recorded dictation in business environments typically takes place by the use of a small general purpose digital computer. Such a computer generally occupies a substantial amount of the transcriptionist's desk space, thereby leaving little additional space for the placement of the transcribe station on the desk within easy reach and convenient view of the transcriptionist. Thus, a transcriptionist would benefit by the implementation of a transcribe station as a peripheral device that fits within an expansion slot of a typical general purpose digital computer.
At least one vendor of central dictation systems, Lanier Worldwide, Inc., the assignee of this application, has developed a transcription control device that plugs into an expansion slot of a general purpose digital computer system. The transcription control device connects to the computer busses and thereby permits a transcriptionist to control recorder functions by the operation of particular keys on a keyboard connected to the computer. A control program, which runs on the computer in a "terminate but stay resident" (TSR) mode, implements the control functions normally found on a transcribe station by redirecting keyboard interrupts generated by the operation of certain keys to a program code that executes the selected control functions. Although the transcription control device enables the transcriptionist to control selected transcribe functions via the computer used for transcription, the device does not operate to transfer any display information from the recorder to the computer. Thus, the convenience gained by the use of a transcription control device installed within the computer used for transcription is offset by the loss of descriptive information supplied by the recorder for display by the conventional transcribe station.
Therefore, there is a need for a transcription device of a central dictation system that (1) operates with a small general purpose digital computer system for the control of transcription functions and (2) automatically transfers descriptive information concerning a dictation segment from the central recorder to the word processing program for display by the computer. The present invention is preferably embodied as a peripheral device that connects to the busses of a small general purpose digital computer by directly plugging the device into an expansion slot, thereby saving operating space at the transcriptionist's desk and providing convenient access to transcription control functions via certain keyboard key strokes. The present invention also automatically transfers descriptive information associated with a particular dictation segment being transcribed to the word processing program running on the computer for display by a monitor connected to the computer.